I have been living in this constant feeling of a Brain Cloud.... for those not familiar with Brain Clouds, please see this link: Joe Vs the Volcano OR better just watch the movie!!!!
So I've been listless, less impressed, and overwhelmed by all the things we have to do in life. I've had some trouble finding joy in my daily life. Cycling though the never-ending task lists and rarely finding time for myself. Journaling has been a huge comfort for me, combining my love of making lists, drawing, and organization tools I have started to fast fill the small journal I moved into in May. I have found several pages have been lost and abandoned, while others have strived and I look forward to completing the tasks/experiences on those pages.
I really loved last weeks adjustments, I find the small steps (I call it Tuning) to be super helpful. My goal is to cut the time it takes to create a layout down to 5-10 minutes, this way I have more time to draw or fill in the important information. My first few weekly layouts were taking me about 20-30 minutes, counting dots and laying out a page in pencil to then go over it with pen. This week I started the layout in Pen. This week's tuning was making smaller areas for grid lines, that are in line, without breaks, this change was super helpful. Here I am this morning, drinking coffee and reflecting on the layout I did yesterday:
I need to work on my timeline tracker stuff (work, sleep, fun) having a reminder of my daily routines/changes everyday has been great, and I want to find the best way for me to track this information without overwhelming my need to complete the tasks. I find being able to reflect on how much sleep I've gotten, water/fruits and veggie intake, weather, and mood vs alcohol consumption to be helpful. This month there were a few days when I felt stressed and overwhelmed with life in general. On stressful days it is easy to complain about small things, the things that tilt the scale, and which in themselves are not big on the scale of destruction. To look back to see that I had gotten less than 4 hours of sleep, not had enough water, fell back into poor eating habits, along with poor weather and lack of physical activity for numerous days/nights was helpful. Seeing these details helped me focus on the fact that busy/rough/stressful times don't last forever. That really the things I was complaining about were, in fact, changeable and are not the normal for me anymore.
The other Amazing thing about this layout was working on this layout yesterday and enjoying the day to the fullest. It was such a nice day that I chose to work on my layout outside on the patio after dinner. Here's to enjoying the days and nights to their fullest, and making sure the brain clouds stay away.
Happy journaling!
